4.7s at Mids West

beglass

New Member
Why are there only 4 boats? (and 3 from Seattle). Aren't we teaching more than 4 kids to race Lasers coming out of the West Coast Opti and Sabot fleets?
 
They've grown up and are racing Radials or 420's/CFJ's, or have school/school sailing that weekend, or other things going on.
 
yup, high school sailing that weekend.

Mar 29-30 NorCal Championships - CFJ's St. Francis YC

Mar 29 SoCal #5 - CFJ's MBYC/SDYC

And for college sailing:

Mar 29-30 South Points 5 Designate UCSB
 
I wish a National level laser event would out rank a few sub regional HS events. I guess the Seattle team will need to bring radials in case there is no 4.7 start.

Very disappointing.
 
When you sail for your school, that takes precedence over everything else, as with any school sport. It's called Dedication and Commitment.
 
Dedication and commitment? This is the LASER Forum buddy where's yours? I know more about Cali HS sailing than I care to admit but it will suffice to say that having been the PRO of the St FYC HS regatta last year, I know it is not a PCISA event and counts for nothing same as the Socal event. Many of the teams are slash teams and therefore there is not a team to undedicate oneself to.
The MWW is a more important event. Club based teams should be pointing this out to their sailors. Good scores at MWW will get you into Youths Champs (where I don't see your Olympic hopeful self ever having been on the score sheet). Did you ever even get into that event? Maybe if you had shown some dedication and commitment to some real sailing instead of some lame HS team you would have.

I only started this link in the hope of getting a few more 4.7s to come out and play. You are definitely at the top of the lame A-hole for list for attacking my attempt to improve our sport!
 
I never sailed HS,( ok I did a regatta as a pickup crew, and did cressy elims twice) and I never applied to YC's because it was unimportant to me at the time.

If you have a problem with me, I suggest you message me instead of attacking me in public. Merrily, care to take care of this?
 
Dedication and commitment? This is the LASER Forum buddy where's yours? I know more about Cali HS sailing than I care to admit but it will suffice to say that having been the PRO of the St FYC HS regatta last year, I know it is not a PCISA event and counts for nothing same as the Socal event. Many of the teams are slash teams and therefore there is not a team to undedicate oneself to.
The MWW is a more important event. Club based teams should be pointing this out to their sailors. Good scores at MWW will get you into Youths Champs (where I don't see your Olympic hopeful self ever having been on the score sheet). Did you ever even get into that event? Maybe if you had shown some dedication and commitment to some real sailing instead of some lame HS team you would have.

I only started this link in the hope of getting a few more 4.7s to come out and play. You are definitely at the top of the lame A-hole for list for attacking my attempt to improve our sport!

For pity's sake! Ross did not attack your attempt to improve the sport. Losing your temper doesn't improve the sport. Ross, being recently out of high school, understands that that is a close knit group. If you want to snag them, getting nasty won't help your cause. Who wants to be around someone calling people A-holes at the drop of a hat?
 
Thank you Merilly... As a coach, our friend here should have realized that name calling and yelling do not help prove a point, and also as a coach, he should know the importance of clear communication. Especially as 2007 US Sailing Developmental Coach of the year!

One of the things I have noticed with HS, and College sailing, is that a majority of kids are only in it for the school sport, they only do it for school! I know a handful that race for school, and for themselves. Some kids just don't have an interest in sailing outside of school, it's just their school sport for class credit. Such is life.... And like other school sports, that sport takes precedence over others, it's just the way it works. If coach says be there, you best be there!

If you want the 4.7 fleet to get bigger, you have to target the kids at the root: the yacht clubs. One of the problems is that most kids come out of sabots/optis, and if their to small for Radials, they go to 420s or CFJs. IF, and I mean IF, the YC has any 4.7's, if they choose, they will sail those. Unfortunately 4.7's are not very popular. I think it may be because the class is still relatively young, and the problem is that kids grow out of it quickly, so parents are unwilling to buy them. The answer to this is to outfit the YC's with a handful of them. The parent/child supplies the boat and top section, and they borrow the sail and lower section from the YC until they are ready for a Radial. And if they become serious about it, they can buy their own.

Whats your answer to this problem?

PS, I got third in the HS event I sailed in as pickup crew, while not a big deal, still not to shabby
 
What about HS Team sailors looking to get picked up by a college team? Is it their best interest to do the HS events or go solo at a class event like MMW? What get's them more points w/the colleges?
 
If you want the 4.7 fleet to get bigger, you have to target the kids at the root: the yacht clubs. One of the problems is that most kids come out of sabots/optis, and if their to small for Radials, they go to 420s or CFJs. IF, and I mean IF, the YC has any 4.7's, if they choose, they will sail those. Unfortunately 4.7's are not very popular. I think it may be because the class is still relatively young, and the problem is that kids grow out of it quickly, so parents are unwilling to buy them. The answer to this is to outfit the YC's with a handful of them. The parent/child supplies the boat and top section, and they borrow the sail and lower section from the YC until they are ready for a Radial. And if they become serious about it, they can buy their own.

Whats your answer to this problem?

I run a team with 11 4.7 sailors, with half the rigs and boats on loan from the club. I am loading a trailer to drive all the way to SD from the NW today so that 5 of those 4.7s can race at a National level event.
Having been on the Bays Area's junior sailing board I know that we all decided to buy 4.7s instead of Bytes and other odd boats. That was 2.5 years ago. Those programs did buy 4.7s and I was wondering why more of then weren't coming to MWW.

What are you doing to get 4.7s on the water in your area?

As for me being a coach: if you had ever had me as a coach you wouldn't be sending these weak responses to questions about Laser sailing which have forced me to comment on how lame you are. If you responded in the first place with the problem you saw with 4.7s as you understood it instead of insinuating that I don't know what dedication and commitment are you would have gotten a respectful response. It a two way street.
 
As for me being a coach: if you had ever had me as a coach you wouldn't be sending these weak responses to questions about Laser sailing which have forced me to comment on how lame you are. If you responded in the first place with the problem you saw with 4.7s as you understood it instead of insinuating that I don't know what dedication and commitment are you would have gotten a respectful response. It a two way street.

I maintain that you've misconstrued Ross's statement. He's saying that the HS kids are totally dedicated to their school to the exclusion of all else, not that you don't know about dedication and commitment. I also maintain that nobody has "forced" you to do anything. I would expect more self control from a coach. Even so, The Laser Forum does not permit personal attacks. If you persist, your posts will be deleted and perhaps you will be banned.
 
...
What are you doing to get 4.7s on the water in your area?
...

I live not at NA but at Germany, but let me say this small experience.

I bought a 4.7er sail from Scotland in 2005 and a 4.7 lower section in 2006 from our Laserdealer (that did need a lot of time and sweat, too). I payed all that from MY money (And peolpe that know me, say:Lu really NOT is rich). I thought to give that rigg to the club to make a beginning. I only got many-many laughs from those "people with the captains hat always on" at the club I sail at and also from the young Optisailors at that club. No one did want even to test the 4.7er here, neither in 2006 nor 2007. I stayed calm.
In Febr. 2008, I found a club in the neighborhood (radius 100km from my home...), that now beginns to introduce the 4.7er Laser seriously to their youth (instead of 420er / Europe Dinghy). I sold ("0"-profit for me, of course) the 4.7er rigg to them. They soon start to test it.

At GER the 4.7er really will be introduced at our National Youth Championships this summer to the young sailors there. The Laser district office makes a promotion: TEN!!! new and crispy Laser 4.7 gratuitously will wait at the beach there for the young Optimist sailors, that soon have to leave the Optimist dinghy, and want to test the Laser4.7. The district office tries to promote in that way, that the Laser 4.7 probably becomes the new official national youth boat. Why all that just now and not earlier? I say: better yet than never. It is never to late to change the minds. In the next years, the number of regattas, where also the Laser 4.7 may start, will grow, slowly but it will grow. Every thing needs the time it needs and if there are only 2 or three Laser 4.7, than I say th's better than to have only one. There is no reason to quarrel about.

At 2010 the sailing world gets a new international event: the Olympic-Youth-Games. Male singlehanded-sailors (under age 16) sail Laser Radial and female singlehanded-sailors (under age 16) sail Laser 4.7. That will promote the Laser 4.7 best in the next future around our globe.

Happy Easter to you all

LooserLu
 
Not really much of a concern for me right now. I sail for myself.

ross, why can't you take on a bit of the "Laser Class Role Model"? as an Olympic Campaigner, now a product tester, and all around international sailor this should be your time to pass on what you have you learned. the youth of today in the 4.7's need positive role-models to aid them in their advance through the laser class ladder. i realize you have a busy class schedule and your real olympic push will not be for a few years, but any time or effort in a 4.7 sailors life may show them to follow their dreams too. the coaches need support too. you may be coached or be a coach in years to come.
 
I would love to coach after college, don't get me wrong, it's something I plan to do. And if people ask me for help, I 'll help them, need me to show you how to rig your boat? I'll do it! Want me to come down for an afternoon and show you how to roll tack or gybe? I'll do it! (For free!)

But I am not really at the point in my life where I want to hold a clinic for 50 inner-city kids over a 3 day weekend. And I don't think I am ready, or the right person to be on the road pushing the 4.7. These are all things I would love do to someday, but not right at this moment. After I've gotten all of my traveling and sailing, and Olympic Campaigning out of my system, I would love to work for a yacht club as a junior director/racing director, and do these sort of things, and promote the sport as much a possible, and give back to the sport that has given me so much. But that time is not right now.
 
I was just at the southeast dinghy champs at the Key Biscayne yacht club, and it seems that the older opti kids are ready to get out of them and into something bigger. I think it would be wise to target them for 4.7s because they are tired of the small opti, and want to move onto something bigger.
 
Our district was given a couple of 4.7 rigs to be available as "loaners" to anyone wanting to try them at any of our district events, (we host about 7-10 district events a year). I organized one of these events and pimped the 4.7 rig pretty hard, but there were no takers. As far as I know we had no interest in the rigs at any of our events. All of our juniors are in radials. I think when a lot of kids come out of opti's they are ready for the radial and don't want the 4.7. That's my guess. I think the 4.7 rig is doing well in Puerto Rico, but I don't know why.
 
I think the 4.7 rig is doing well in Puerto Rico, but I don't know why.

Maybe it is windier there, and the sailors have less ego in the discussion.

Similar to how kids used to 'man up' under peer pressue, and sail full rigs when they really should have sailed radials. They then had little fun when the breeze built over 12 kts.

It will just take longer to get the 4.7 message out.
 
you can do it, but it might not be fun over 15 knots. Under 15, and the radial is going to be boring. I switched full time to the full rig when I hit 165 pounds.
 
Iv'e been trying to push ABYC to consider the 4.7. Problem is the Sabots have their roots dug deep around here. The kids that are big enough for the 4.7 are willing to do it, but no one wants to be the first. They are happy enough entering the huge fleets of sabots rather than the 4 or so 4.7's. In short, the kids dont want to let go, and the parents arent pushing them out.
My son started in the 4.7, but he's big enough now not to look back. I have donated a complete Laser 4.7 to the club, and hopefully it will be a start to get these kids into something better a bit sooner.
The parents need to take responsibility here and get their kids out of the sabot as soon as the boat is no longer a challenge. As long as the good sailors stay in the sabot (or opti if thats what your area sails), the 4.7 will never succeed.
 

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